Applying the Office of Budget Responsibility's forecasts for inflation to the new figures, the money invested in infrastructure in 2014-15 will be about 46% less than this year.

It looks like we could be returning to the dark days of the 1980s and early 1990s when researchers were forced to work in laboratories and facilities that were starved of investment. World class researchers need world class facilities and infrastructure if they are to provide the advances in knowledge and innovation that drive our economy.